Sirian

Reply to Aldarian Empire Thread in Galactic Civilizations I Stardock Forums

[quote]the outside world is going to be keeping me pretty busy the next couple of weeks.[/quote] Sure, sure. DHABBing all up and down the country. :HOT: It's a hard life, but somebody's gotta do it. LOL Double vision plays heck on a person's strategy, anyway. The AI may be sending only three frigates against you, but if you're seeing six or seven, well, you get the idea. ;) On a less jocular note, perhaps another time then? :D - Sirian

Reply to Succession Games - Q1 2004 - GalCiv Standard in Galactic Civilizations I Stardock Forums

OK, we officially have enough for three teams. Still a couple slots to fill if players are interested, though, and still waiting to see if a lower difficulty game will garner enough interest, too. Today will be the last day for signups, though, as tonight I will set the rosters, open the threads and post the start files, as well as take the first turn for Team G. Again, due to patch timing, we don't want to delay starting, because the games will have to be finished on v1.13 and could ta

Reply to Travel to Realms Beyond Your Ordinary Gaming Experience in Galactic Civilizations I Stardock Forums

We're in sight of two million points? Whodathunkit. I'm glad we're getting some SG signups from other empires. Should be more fun with fresh faces. Who here remembers their first Civ3 SG? I know I sure do! :D - Sirian

Reply to Canadian Star Federation Thread in Galactic Civilizations I Stardock Forums

[quote]I guess you can blame Realms Beyond for waking this sleeping giant. [/quote] Who us? :) You've done a splendid job of keeping the heat on. In my experience of Canadians up close and personal, this comes as no surprise. ;) We wouldn't be ahead of you without the contributions of our Canadian players, for whatever that may be worth noting. I agree with you about playing GalCiv, taking breaks from it but coming back for more later. That is probably what I and other

Reply to Aldarian Empire Thread in Galactic Civilizations I Stardock Forums

Um, yeah. What BamBam said. :) Oh, and in case you were wondering, yes there will be DHABB after the succession games, if we can manage to win. Since Aldarians know how to find any excuse to DHABB, perhaps some of you would care to volunteer to assist us in this noble cause? :D - Sirian

Reply to G.R.O.S.S. communication thread. in Galactic Civilizations I Stardock Forums

No, BamBam! NO!!! DON'T TELL THEM! Arrgh. Now the secret's out. :SURPRISED: The next thing you know, Kit's going to show up, hold our SUCCESSION GAMES hostage, and demand our booze! Oh this is a disaster. (:( Can somebody please put the genie back into the bottle? LOL We didn't mind so much the one-eyed puppies, but not the SG's. NOT... THE... SG'S! :sniff!: - Sirian

Reply to The Rum Rebellion's fermented thread in Galactic Civilizations I Stardock Forums

Wow. What did you guys do to BamBam? That was scary. :D - Sirian

Reply to Succession Games - Q1 2004 - GalCiv Standard in Galactic Civilizations I Stardock Forums

[quote]I am still reading to learn so I will be a lurker for a while longer.[/quote] That's fine. :) An experienced team can hum along and accomplish as much as a solo player, sometimes more because several heads working together may be better than one working alone. However, inexperienced teams or players of divergent strategy may not meet that standard, and could be in for all they can handle. Not to mention that medium/large maps tend to be the least forgiving, and scattered

Reply to Succession Games - Q1 2004 - GalCiv Standard in Galactic Civilizations I Stardock Forums

Ben, could you move your mod files to a temporary location before you take your turn, then move them back afterward? Consider it a part of the process, which already involves zipping and unzipping the files, writing and posting a report, taking and cropping screenshots (if desired), and uploading files to the CivFanatics file server. Moving a few files twice would not be that much extra, and it would not interfere with your other game. With four or five players on the team, you can figure betwee

Reply to Why are militery victories worth more points? in Galactic Civilizations I Stardock Forums

[quote]They should make an ideal year for each victory condition to be won by. [/quote] I disagree. Without further qualification, all this does is reward players for playing on easier maps. This only further encourages the already rampant use of Ctrl-n to reroll the map. Unless the scoring can evaluate the difficulty factors inherent to the map layouts -- how close the minors may be, which AI's secure the most in the land grab and what their alignments are relative to the players, etc

Reply to Succession Games - Q1 2004 - GalCiv Standard in Galactic Civilizations I Stardock Forums

[quote]With no bonus to our military, we are going to have some fun with this...[/quote] Well it's not NO bonus. :) There is a small bonus to weapons and defense, plus a small repair bonus. Trust me, that's different than no bonus. :D I chose the bonuses to spread around a few minor benefits to each team. Still nobody outside RB who has signed up? Hmm. If we don't draw any additional interest, we may not be able to gather enough in time to field three teams. That would be a sha

Reply to Canadian Star Federation Thread in Galactic Civilizations I Stardock Forums

My only visit across the border was a roadtrip to Guelph, west of Toronto. Good friend of mine from West Virginia whose mother is a native American from Canada was getting his duel citizenship and I drove him up there for the ceremony. Very nice folks. More cultural differences in the small details than I expected, but just goes to show how uncosmopolitan life in the States can be if you never get out to have a look around. :) Canada in the winter was VERY interesting, too. Everyone had

Reply to Succession Games - Q1 2004 - GalCiv Standard in Galactic Civilizations I Stardock Forums

That sounds like fun. :) No Terror Stars for Team E. :SURPRISED: - Sirian

Reply to Travel to Realms Beyond Your Ordinary Gaming Experience in Galactic Civilizations I Stardock Forums

The insanity marches on. With our first succession game now concluded, we are ready to open another round of games, this time more ambitious. For information and signups, visit this link: http://www.galciv.com/forum.asp?BID=GF&ID=127933 - Sirian

Reply to You are Cordially Invited to Tune In to Watch the first GalCiv Succession Game in Galactic Civilizations I Stardock Forums

The VERY near future. :D http://www.galciv.com/forum.asp?BID=GF&ID=127933

Succession Games - Q1 2004 - GalCiv Standard in Galactic Civilizations I Stardock Forums

In a succession game, members of a team take turns at the helm of a single player game, playing a specified number of turns before passing the game to the next player. Players from Realms Beyond played the first complete GalCiv succession game at CivFanatics, where we've been playing Civ3 succession games for years now. Here is the thread at CivFanatics where the first game was played and reported: http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=72311&perpage=20&displa

Reply to Why are militery victories worth more points? in Galactic Civilizations I Stardock Forums

The real problem with scoring is not the scoring at all, but the AI and the way that the end game tends to unfold. I will try to explain. Stardock appears to place "cranking" at the top of its list of evils to be avoided. They may be right about that. At least under the current situation, players cannot crank VERY short, low difficulty games and outscore Maso players. If players do manage to score a quick, crushing military victory, they score a lot less, because the game ends earl

Reply to Why are militery victories worth more points? in Galactic Civilizations I Stardock Forums

[quote]I don't think we have any of those "hounds" around, Sirian.[/quote] That's part of my point. This community doesn't get up in arms whining about fixes to exploitable problems. There was some angst posted over the 1 IP trick, but the community moved on, and is either happier with that exploit gone or at least accepting. Thus Stardock would not face backlash from status-quo defenders if they fix problems. How to get it right is a big question. Certainly accumulating more a

Reply to The Truth about the Metaverse in Galactic Civilizations I Stardock Forums

[quote]I always new Sirian was... well... different. [/quote] Lies. Lies planted by Drengin spies. No surprise. With Altarians, I have no ties. Some folks just like to criticize. Sirian denies these lies. Word to the wise. - Sirian

Reply to The Metaverse Review is Launched! in Galactic Civilizations I Stardock Forums

Well, as everyone knows, after DHABB comes REHAB. LOL At least for us non-Aldarians. :) - Sirian

Reply to You are Cordially Invited to Tune In to Watch the first GalCiv Succession Game in Galactic Civilizations I Stardock Forums

[quote]One thing to note--I think there is some scaling of the tech costs with map size[/quote] Yes, but not with habitability. It's pretty simple, really. All you have to do is check any of the starting techs. I always research Communication Theory first, so that's the one I used. Here's the costs to research Comm Theory per map size: Tiny - 20 Small - 25 Medium - 30 Large - 40 Huge - 50 Gigantic - 50 Note the oddity of no increase from hu

Reply to Canadian Star Federation Thread in Galactic Civilizations I Stardock Forums

[quote]Challenge and metaverse points are two completely different beasts. [/quote] True, but they are not mutually exclusive. Completely ignoring points considerations is not healthy for your Meta ranking, but completely ignoring challenge and variety may not be healthy for your fun factor. For me, the latter is a lot more urgent. I admit to using Populist party more than any other, but that still only covers about a fourth of my games. I have taken high diplo picks only a few

Reply to What year do you usually win/lose by? in Galactic Civilizations I Stardock Forums

[quote]I've never played with abundant habitables on gigantic, since I'd probably die of old age before I could complete the game.[/quote] I've done gigantic-abundant two or three times, and for me the games finish FASTER, not slower, if measuring game date. Slower in real time, of course. The tech pace moves faster, the more planets there are. But I'm that rare soul who says phooey to the points and takes the alliance or cultural win if it is there. For players using the "flip

Reply to Travel to Realms Beyond Your Ordinary Gaming Experience in Galactic Civilizations I Stardock Forums

[quote]I'm embarrassed to say that I am stuck. [/quote] Don't be. Try to look it not as "doing things wrong" but as "could be doing more things better". Also remember, Maso kicks my butt from time to time. I still have to use spoilers or my replay to beat a lot of maps, and some are just too harsh even then, with a runaway neighbor with whom I can't seem to delay contact or improve relations, who swallows me whole right out of the gate. Certainly you should not let one or two r

Reply to Why are militery victories worth more points? in Galactic Civilizations I Stardock Forums

[quote]Exploiting weaknesses isn’t evil, it’s a human strength! [/quote] I agree completely. However, you are missing the point, not arguing head on with the complaint's best argument. To be replayable, to retain value over a long haul, a game must have tight rules. If a game is well balanced, there will be many paths, many options from which to choose, to pursue success. If some options are too strong, too rewarding -- if some aspects of the game are too weak and o